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Need for Speed Rivals announced, coming November 19

Electronic Arts has announced Need for Speed Rivals, coming from Criterion Games and EA's newest studio Ghost Games. The popular racing franchise is set to come to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 19, as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year.

Electronic Arts has announced Need for Speed Rivals, coming from Criterion Games and EA's newest studio Ghost Games. The popular racing franchise is set to come to PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 19, as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this year. EA had hinted mentioned a new game in the series was coming earlier this month.

The premise of the game has the player choosing either the police or a racer, with each side having its own challenges. As a racer, players will get speedpoints to unlock new cars and items by evading police by using such things as jammers and EMPs. The police are tasked with busting the racers and gaining rank, with the higher ranks opening more police cars and better tech to catch the speeders, such as shockwaves, roadblocks and helicopters.

The game will use the Frostbite 3 engine, and will be bringing the Ferrari back to the series. The F12 Berlinetta will also be one of the cars. A pre-order will get The Ultimate Cop Pack, which includes the Nissan GT-R Black Edition cop car, advanced pursuit technology, and a custom livery.

"The Need for Speed franchise has been an industry leader bringing social competition to the forefront in games," said Marcus Nilsson, the executive producer at Ghosts Games. "For the first time, players will have the freedom to seamlessly go from single player to co-op to multiplayer. In Need for Speed Rivals we are creating one game experience with one progression, where the freedom to play with friends is more fluid and accessible than ever before."

Joystiq was able to confirm that a PC version of the game was also in the works. "Need for Speed Rivals will look easily as good on PC as next-generation consoles," Nilsson said.

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John Keefer

Contributing Editor

John Keefer is a curmudgeon that has been in journalism for 35 years, the last 16 in the video games industry. He loves real-time strategy games and prefers old-school Total Annihilation to StarCraft. He also loves isometric RPGs, and has been addicted to World of Warcraft for more than 10 years. He sucks at shooters and multiplayer and is purely a PC guy. And being a former member of Shack, he also likes Chatty. Go figure.